HC cancels MBBS admission in GMCH under NRI quota

Sanjeev Verma,
Chandigarh

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Updated: Oct 02, 2012 11:07 IST

Finding that one of the three candidates admitted to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32 for an MBBS course this year under the NRI quota had made false claims of being NRI, the Punjab and Haryana high court has quashed her admission and directed GMCH to fill the vacant seat as per the merit list in accordance with law.

A bench headed by justice Augustine George Masih observed that since Gurcharan Singh, father of the wrongly admitted candidate, Arunjeet Goshal, a resident of Sector 4, Panchkula, had hardly gone out of the country and had been staying back in India for 10 or more months in a year for the past several years, he cannot be termed as NRI.

The bench said Gurcharan was an occasional visitor to Canada for short periods and for most of the time, he had been residing in India for the past seven years.

"They may be Canadian citizens but in the light of the fact that they have been staying in India for most of the last seven years, they cannot be termed as NRIs," stated the bench. The bench also observed that Goshal and her father were residing in India without registering themselves with the Foreigners' Regional Registration Office (FRRO) at Chandigarh to claim NRI status.The bench further said that though Goshal was claiming to be a Canadian national, she had done her Class 11 and 12 from Saint Soldier School, Dhakoli, in Punjab.

The bench passed the orders while deciding a petition filed by Viraaj Pratap Singh Pannu, an NRI candidate who had applied for the MBBS course but was kept in the waiting list. Pannu had challenged Goshal's admission primarily on the grounds that she did not fulfil the requirements as mandated in the centralised admission brochure for the MBBS course for the session 2012, Chandigarh, under the heading Foreign Indian Students (NRI) Seats.